News

1 august 2017

changes to the victorian working with children check legislation

From 1 August 2017 the definition of "direct contact" within the legislation has been updated - see here for details. The term "supervision" has also been removed from the legislation, meaning that any person who works with children, whether under supervision by an existing WWC Check holder or not, must have their own WWC Check - see here for further information.

1 july 2017

changes to the victorian crimes act - child sex offences

The Victorian Government have revised and updated relevant sections of the Victorian Crimes Act to bring the terminology of the offences into modern language and to further strengthen the laws surrounding criminal sex offences against children. For further information see here.

17 march 2017

safe church training for new ministers

In response to requests from our denomination Safe Church Training for New Ministersis now available to assist new ministers in areas such as reporting requirements (including legal responsibilities), resourcing to aide ministering to individuals involved in an abuse-related matter, and, responding to Safe Church scenarios. This training is for both recently graduated or ordained PCV ministers as well as for those ministers and pastoral ministry workers who have recently come to a PCV charge from another denomination. Please contact the Safe Church Facilitator if you would like further details.

1 january 2017

The Victorian Child Safe Standards apply to all organisations in Victoria which work with children, including religious organisations such as churches, from 1 January 2017. The PCV complies with the Child Safe Standards - for further information please contact the Safe Church Facilitator.

4 august 2016

The Safe Church Compliance & Administration Officer, Mr Ian Atkinson, has commenced. Ian works Thursdays 9am-5pm and can be contacted in regards to

Working With Children Checks and Compliance Audit Schedule enquiries and compliance

compliance accreditation for PCV churches, organisations and individuals, including issuing of certificates

training compliance enquiries and support

administering Volunteer Approval Process applications

handling Safe Church material requests, including requests for manuals and brochures

4 january 2016

December 2015

Coming Soon - The PCV Safe Church Youtube Channel

Launching in January 2016, the Safe Church Basic Training will be available for congregations to run in-house, via the use of a kit and training videos at the PCV Safe Church YouTube Channel. For the training to be compliant it must be authorised by the Session, registered with the Safe Church Unit and administered by the Safe Church Representative, as an official congregational event. It is not sufficient to refer people to the videos for them to watch in their own time.

1 APRIL 2015

The Presbytery of Melbourne West Safe Church Basic Training location has now been announced:

Saturday 1st August 2015, 9.30am - 12.30pm

Sunshine Presbyterian Church, 120 Anderson Road, Sunshine.

Register your attendance with either the Safe Church Representative in your congregation or directly via email:safechurch@pcv.org.au

An extra session has been added for the Presbytery of Maroondah - Woori Yallock Region:

16 february 2015

The Presbytery of Ballarat Safe Church Basic Training has now been changed to:

Saturday 30th May 2015, 9.30am - 12.30pm

Location: Ararat Presbyterian Church, 330 Barkly Street, Ararat.

Register your attendance with either the Safe Church Representative in your congregation or directly via email:safechurch@pcv.org.au

14 february 2015

To assist churches and organisations some new resources have been added to the Resources page:

Toileting Children Protocol Advice

Example Driving Consent Form

Safe Church Basic Training 2015 Calendar

12 January 2015

Safe Church Basic Training commences in 2015 and is offered in all presbyteries. Every person who

is in a leadership position

works with children

is involved in Pastoral Care

is required to attend Basic Training once every three years. More information is available on the Training page of this website.

The Basic Training Calendar shows the dates and locations of each session. The session lasts approximately three hours with a short comfort break half-way through.

Register your attendance with either the Safe Church Representative in your congregation or directly via email:safechurch@pcv.org.au

31 October 2014

The Victorian Government has introduced three new criminal offences to further protect children from abuse. These new offences have serious ramifications for all people who are in leadership in churches and all those who work with children under 18.

The three new offences are:

a grooming offence which targets communication, including online communication, with a child or their parents with the intent of committing child sexual abuse

a failure to disclose offence that requires adults to report to police a reasonable belief that a sexual offence has been committed against a child (unless they have a reasonable excuse for not doing so)

a failure to protect offence that applies to people within organisations who knew of a risk of child sexual abuse by someone in the organisation and had the authority to reduce or remove the risk, but negligently failed to do so.

These changes raise the expected level of awareness and readiness to act by churches in terms of prevention of and response to child abuse. The role of the Safe Church Unit is to assist the PCV in adapting to this new legislative environment.

These laws will be covered in the Safe Church Basic Training which commences in presbyteries in 2015. In the meantime the main message is that leaders and those who work with children are to treat concerns about potential or known child abuse with the utmost seriousness. It is better to voice concerns than to downplay them. The Safe Church Unit is here to help the PCV community with such concerns and can be contacted for help and advice.

For advice and guidelines in relation to online communication and social media see Resources

30 October 2014

A new document, Wise Ministry Practices for Working With Children, has been added to the Resources section of this website. This document is aimed to assist leaders involved in children's ministry with common concerns or queries around practical issues such as toileting young children and adult to children ratios for ministry.

2 October 2014

The State Government of Victoria has enacted changes to the Victorian Working With Children Check (WWC Check). For the purposes of the legislation a minister of religion is anyone ordained or appointed as a recognised religious leader in an organised religious institution or an appointed leader of a local religious organisation in an institution who has general authority over operations or some of the operations of the congregation in the institution.

Advice given to the Safe Church Unit during consultation with the State Government means that the broadened scope of the WWC Check will mean that the following people in the PCV require a WWC Check in addition to those already holding a WWC Check due to participation in child-related activities:

Ministers - regardless of whether or not their congregation includes children

Elders

Board Members

Appointed leaders of any ministry in the congregation – this includes music leaders, bible study leaders, and specific ministry leaders (for example women’s ministry or English teaching ministry leaders) - regardless of whether or not their ministry area includes ministry to children

The legislation is broad in nature and on advice the PCV will err on the side of complete coverage. The message from government is that the WWC Check is the minimum standard and organisations should be careful to ensure that all appointed leaders have a WWC Check . Exemptions may apply for congregations where there are noregularly attending children - please contact the Safe Church Unit for further information.

The WWC Check application form is now only available online. Please contact the Safe Church Unit via email or telephone with further queries or should any assistance be required. A link to the application page on the State Government WWC Check site is in the Forms page of this website. There is no cost for the check for all volunteers in the PCV.

Why do I need a check if my appointed leadership role does not involve children?

The Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the Handling of Child Abuse by Religious and Other Organisations and the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse have revealed two key areas of concern that the broadening of the Victorian WWC Check seeks to address:

The need to change culture from "Child sexual abuse could never happen in my church" to "Child sexual abuse can and does happen in churches and everyone needs to be mindful of preventing it and ready to report it".

The need to remove "blocks" when a concern is raised with a leader in a church and that leader is either not mindful of the possibility of child sexual abuse occurring, perhaps even disbelieving about this or doesn't believe it is their responsibility to take the concern further.

By legislating that all appointed leaders in churches and organisations have WWC Checks the state government is seeking to both broaden awareness of child sexual abuse and assist individual leaders at all levels of church authority taking responsibility to report concerns, suspicions or known child sexual abuse.